OBAMA: What`s not working for black kids and Hispanic kids and
Native American kids across this country is the status quo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you see these kids? I see them for who they
are, our future mayor, our future --

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHULTZ: Good to have you with us, folks. Ed Schultz here. I`m
broadcasting live, today, from New Orleans, Louisiana.

(CHEERS)

Thank you.

This is a state where the Republican governor and conservative
legislature. Republicans here and all across America have been attacking
public education for years, cutting budgets.

GOP governors like Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, Chris Christie.
They`re going after teachers` unions. They are slashing budgets, and in
some cases, even Democrats are forcing public schools to shut down
altogether.

Folks, if we lose public education, it will tear apart the very
fabric of this country. The Republican crusade to destroy public education
and create a permanent underclass of working Americans, it never seems to
stop with that crowd. But teachers and parents and students are fighting
back. Take a look.

MITT ROMNEY (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: First of all, you
will find throughout your life that there are tests.

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT: The key to measuring is to test.
And by the way, I`ve heard every excuse in the book, why we should not
test. And for those who claim we`re teaching the test, uh-uh. We`re
teaching a child to read so he or she can pass the test.

OBAMA: The goals of No Child Left Behind were the right ones. But
we`ve got to do it in a way that doesn`t force teachers to teach to the
test or encourage schools to lower their standards, to avoid being labeled
as failures. That doesn`t help anybody.

SCHULTZ: American education is the foundation of this country`s
greatness. And when we start picking and choosing kids, when we start
picking and choosing neighborhoods, when we start picking and choosing
based on race, based on socioeconomic situations, we lose. We lose as a
country.

OBAMA: I got an education and it worked out pretty good.

SCHULTZ: Public schools all over the country are under attack.

In Ohio, Governor John Kasich. In Louisiana, Governor Bobby Jindal.
In Indiana, let`s not forget slick Mitch Daniels. In Michigan, well, it
was Governor Rick Snyder.

How about New Jersey? Governor Chris Christie has no problems
berating teachers at town halls. He`s also actively fought the teachers`
union and made it harder for teachers to gain tenure.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I mean, are you kidding? It`s
a rigged game. They are a political thuggery operation. That`s what they
are.

SCHULTZ: If I push too hard on this, I`m going to be accused by
conservatives of being angry.

CHRISTIE: Well, and listen, and teachers go it into it knowing what
the pay scale is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s right.

SCHULTZ: Who do you think understands the problem better, Chris
Christie or President Obama?

OBAMA: So I want teachers to have higher salaries, I want them to
have more support, I want them to be trained like the professionals they
are.

SCHULTZ: We are at a cross roads in this country when it comes to
asking ourselves the question and making a determination as to which
direction we take? What do we think of public education?

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: It`s clear that the
president`s just not serious about cutting spending.

SCHULTZ: A White House report shows that roughly 300,000 education
jobs have been cut since 2009 -- 300,000? Is that going forward or
backward, you think?

And right now, ground zero, you could say, is Chicago.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC NEWS: Now we go to Chicago, and the outrage
being expressed there today over Mayor Rahm Emanuel`s plan to close dozens
of that city`s public schools.

SCHULTZ: One 9-year-old student at a rally had no problem giving
Mayor Rahm Emanuel a piece of his mind.

ASEAN JOHNSON, 9-YEAR-OLD: Rahm Emanuel thinks that we all are toys;
he thinks he can just come into our schools and move all our kids all over
they lines, and just say, "Oh, we can build a building right here. Let`s
just take this school out-we don`t care about these kids." But it`s kids in
there. They need safety.

Rahm Emanuel is not caring about our schools; he is not caring about
our safety. He only cares about his kids. He only care about what he
needs. He do not care about nobody else but himself.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHULTZ: Joining me now are Chicago public school student Asean
Johnson and his mom, Shoneice Reynolds.

Welcome to THE ED SHOW.

And, America, I want to introduce you to a family that is well-
invested in the fight to save schools in Chicago and do things right for
all students across the city.

Asean, good to have you with us. Shoneice, great to have you with
us. It`s been great to get to know you over the last few days here in New
Orleans. I admire your tenacity and your fight, your spirit, all of it.

But this young man is a very impressive 9-year-old who had the guts
to stand up and tell everyone, not only in the city of Chicago, but across
the country, how important public education is. Sean, tell us, what
motivated you to do that that day?

JOHNSON: Well, we just came off of a three-day march before the
school closings were happening, before the vote was in. And I felt like I
need to come straight to Rahm Emanuel and tell him that he should not be
closing these schools without looking into them, himself, and seeing how
good they are.

And how would you -- why would you close all these schools if you can
-- if CPS knows everything and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, they know everything,
and you`re standing there, they don`t have no resources, why didn`t you
give them to them in the first place so they can have those resources and
they can be a succeeding school.

SCHULTZ: When you say resources, you`re talking about an equal
number of books.

JOHNSON: Like when I said an equal number of books and it needs to
be all equal money into all schools. Not -- don`t give more money to one
school and give less money to the other. Don`t put more money into charter
schools and private schools and -- private schools already get money from
the tuition.

So why would you -- why are you putting more money into private
school if you know they already get money?

SCHULTZ: What has this done for you as far as your willingness to
speak up and people are paying attention to you. Has it changed your life
a little bit?

JOHNSON: Well, yes, it has, because I have been experiencing a lot
of things and this is one of my best experiences ever, coming to New
Orleans, right here, in one of these great cities.

SCHULTZ: But you like to tell it like it is, don`t you?

JOHNSON: Yes.

SCHULTZ: What do you think`s going to happen to public education in
America? How important is it for kids from each neighborhood to have the
same opportunity?

JOHNSON: Well, um, it`s pretty bad, because if you take those public
education out of their neighborhoods, what type of school are they going to
go to? Like, people might have a job, like the parents might have a job,
but they cannot just go over there and take them like one minute to go to
school just pick them right up. But you have to take them farther over to,
like, a good city or charter schools, just to get them for the education
that they need.

And that`s not fair. That`s why you should -- that`s why you should
fund all the schools equally, then it would be no problem. And make sure
they have all the resources that they need, instead of giving them half of
it.

Shoneice, you are a model mother. You know, what you have done with
your boys and the way you have stayed involved. Explain what you`ve seen
your sons go through.

SHONEICE REYNOLDS, ASEAN`S MOM: Well, what I`ve seen him go through
with these schools, he`s a first-year public school student. He comes from
a private school.

So coming into a school district with 600 schools, he just didn`t
understand how is it that the school I worked for did not have resources,
but his school did? And I`m watching him be more of an activist, more of
him standing up for everyone, not just the students in h school, but all
across America. He`s very knowledgeable and looking to see what`s going
on. And I admire him for that.

SCHULTZ: Asean, do you think Rahm Emanuel got your message?

JOHNSON: Well, yes, but he`s still is not listening to the kids or
the teachers. He`s still not listening to them.

We -- no matter how big we make a difference, we all need to come
together as united as one, so he can hear the message and everybody in
Chicago, well, everyone that`s getting school closes, you need to come
together as a unity to stop those school closings, wherever you at.

SCHULTZ: Well, what does it mean when you close a school in a
community and force kids to go somewhere else? You made a comment in front
of a crowd, you either want to build prisons or you want to build schools,
correct? Tell us about that.

JOHNSON: Well, you`re basically saying, if you take the school down,
you`re building more prisons. If you take the school down you`re make --
sure you`re going to build more prisons. Because they need that public
education in order to have -- know wrong from right. You can have that,
but you just might not listen to it.

So it`s for the kids and the children to listen to you conscious, but
not only your conscious, but to your parents, your teachers, make sure that
you have mostly everything that you said, because if you get in gang
violence, you can get shot down. There`s a lot of possibilities that can
happen.

JOHNSON: My teachers, they are very understanding. They are -- they
are welcoming. It`s just a really good environment. They help me out,
make sure I`m not doing anything bad. It`s just a well community.

And they make sure that I`m not doing anything bad. If they see kids
on the street that they know that go to their school, they`ll make sure
they get them home safely.

SCHULTZ: What do you say about the violence in big cities in America
where kids are trying to do to school and do the right thing. How hard is
that?

JOHNSON: It`s pretty hard, because you might get influenced by your
brothers, because some kids are in gangs and they`re teenagers. Because
you might just be influenced to be in a gang by your brothers, because you
never know, your brother might be one of your role models.

So it`s very important for the kids, it`s very important for the
parents, and your brothers and sisters, your big brothers and sisters to
make sure they`re not in no gangs or doing anything bad, because it`s going
to affect your brother or your sister or your children.

SCHULTZ: Shoneice, what has made Asean be so passionate about this?

REYNOLDS: Asean has always been passionate, but he was put directly
in the line of fire. Coming from a public school -- a private school, and
then going into a public school and finding out three months into the
school year that your school is closing along with the first list was 193
schools. They narrowed it down to 126, and then they narrowed it down to
80. And they eventually ended up closing 50 schools.

So what I`m seeing from this is, him looking at the unjust all across
Chicago, Chicago is very divided him going to different communities,
talking to different children and finding out what they have in their
schools and he realized the that he had things in his school that other
children didn`t. When we on the strike and marching, our school didn`t
have computer labs, library, art, foreign language. A lot of resources.
We didn`t have books.

Teachers was coming out of their pockets. I was coming out of my
pockets for those children.

And he didn`t understand when he talked to another one of my
students, he said, y`all don`t have these things, my school has these
things.

SCHULTZ: So the danger here is that we are actually, by picking and
choosing neighborhoods and kids, we`re teaching young kids at an early age
what discrimination is all about.

SCHULTZ: They`re learning something in real-life situations.
They`re seeing some schools get resources and other schools be cut because
of where they are in low-income neighborhoods.

REYNOLDS: Yes.

SCHULTZ: Do you get that, Asean?

JOHNSON: Yes, I do get it, but it`s also unfair that these adults
are cutting out the kids` education, so they can have better jobs, and like
they`re preparing for the future, like, teachers are preparing them for the
future. They`re preparing them for life.

This is what school is all about. It`s to prepare you for your
education so you can have a good education. If you have a good education,
then you can get a good job, you can have a good career.

SCHULTZ: What`s your interest what do you want to be some day?
You`re already an activist.

JOHNSON: I want -- I want to be an athlete. I want to be an athlete
first, and then I might get into politics if the athlete doesn`t work. And
then maybe I`ll be a scientist or a lawyer.

SCHULTZ: There you go. You`ve got a goal. That`s fantastic.

Your mom, Shoneice, is terrific and you`re great. Your brother
Christian is fantastic. It`s been great to get to know you here the last
few days.

And if you had a chance to sit down with President Obama, what would
you say to him?

JOHNSON: I would say, why didn`t you help our schools in the fight?
Because he lives in Chicago, and even though Rahm -- I mean, Mayor Rahm
Emanuel is one of his friends, he should have told him to stop the school
closings, because he doesn`t know -- because Rahm Emanuel might not know
how bad it is in Chicago.

We are like one of the number one murder killed in Chicago. We are
one of the most gang violence. It`s just really segregated between us,
like, south side, west side, it`s a division between that.

So he really should have had said to stop those school closings, tell
Mayor Rahm Emanuel to stop, because he might not know how bad it is. You
might have lived in Chicago, but you might not have lived long enough to
know.

SCHULTZ: So you want the president to get a little bit more involved
there, understand it, make sure that resources go to every school district,
so every kid gets a chance?

JOHNSON: Yes.

SCHULTZ: That`s your mission?

Well, what do you play in football?

JOHNSON: I play running back -- well, basically I`m all over,
because I play kickoff return, kickoff, running back, safety. I was corner
back, and I was quarterback for a little while.

SCHULTZ: Well, you`re running back, safety -- you said you`re all
over the place. He`s all over the place!

Well, I`ll tell you one thing, we went to dinner last night, he`s got
a hole in his shoe, because this kid can eat. No question about it.

Asean, God bless you. Keep going, keep up the fight. You`re going
to have a great life and you keep speaking the truth, my man.

Remember to answer today`s question there at the bottom of the
screen, share your thoughts with us on Twitter @EdShow and on Facebook. We
always want to know what you think.

Coming up, forever alone. We look at the latest victims of the
Republican obstruction. And as American students fall behind in science,
creationists get a boost from the GOP. The rapid response panel weighs in,
next.

You`re watching THE ED SHOW, live from New Orleans at the Essence
Festival.

Stay with us. We`ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW, live from the Essence Festival
in New Orleans, Louisiana.

I`m joined now by Joy Reid of "The Grio," and also, Dr. James
Peterson, MSNBC contributor and professor at Lehigh University.

This week, the interest rate on new federal student loans jumped from
3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. Student loan debt, just the total debt in the
country, already tops over a trillion dollars. This will only worsen with
students being asked to pay more.

Let`s go to the panel.

It`s another roadblock for people seeking higher education.

JAMES PETERSON, LEHIGH UNIVERSITY: That`s right.

SCHULTZ: You first, Joy, on this. What does it do and what message
does it send to young people about advancing themselves in our society.

JOY REID, THEGRIO.COM: Yes, absolutely. And this is the Congress
that was able to find a way to ease the restrictions and the extra fees for
people traveling on airlines, right? So, first class airline passengers
they found a way to get this done --

PETERSON: First of all, they have to travel themselves.

REID: That`s because they use it themselves. They couldn`t organize
this to make this fix.

It is critical. We`re telling young people, you must to go to
college and advance yourself but now, we`re making it prohibitively
expensive. The thing is it`s so sad because it`s something that Congress
failed to do it.

SCHULTZ: It also loads the debt on young people coming from
economically challenged families.

What does it mean as a whole in this country?

PETERSON: Well, it`s a big blow. One thing that it shows you, that
Congress can`t really do anything unless they have these impending doom,
end of the cliff, edge of the cliff deadlines. They kind of got out of
town before this had to come to term.

At the end of the day for black folk, people of color, for working
class folk, we need access to higher education as an equalizer, Ed. That`s
the whole thing. And so, when you add $2,600 which is the average it`s
going to add on in terms of the interest rate that will capitalize for
these loans, for families who need these loans that`s a tremendous burden
for kids coming out of school.

SCHULTZ: Where are the advocates? I`ve interviewed Bernie Sanders
who points out that big banks in this country, from the Fed, they get money
at three quarters of a percent.

PETERSON: Yes, Elizabeth Warren is one of the great advocates.
She`s saying look at the interest rates we`re giving big banks. Why can`t
students get these?

SCHULTZ: Is this going to keep young people charged up, motivated in
the midterms?

REID: No, absolutely. The Republicans have a problem with young
voters and this compounds it. I think you ask the right question, Ed.
Where are the advocates? The problem is the people that don`t have a big
money lobby that can come in because they`re going to hold campaign
donations over the heads of these members because there`s no one like that
for student, they get thrown under the bus along with the poor, along with
the middle class.

SCHULTZ: Well, turning this around. We should point out no
Republicans are stepping up talking about the injustice. This is a social
injustice as much as it is anything else. It`s an immoral move and it`s
unnecessary.

REID: It`s a profit they`re making on students, they`re making it on
kids that are coming out of college.

And think about it, Ed, we`re right here in the start of summer when
you have a lot of young people who just graduated from college. You get a
six month delay of having to pay the bills but now they`re looking at
getting jobs that will probably pay less than the job than we graduated we
were able to get.

PETERSON: That`s right.

REID: And now, they`re going to be adding on this tremendous burden,
doubling the rates of their payment. And it`s a payment you have to make.
It will ruin your credit, it will ruin your ability to get a loan.

PETERSON: Absolutely. And it stays with you forever. You can`t
discharge it.

SCHULTZ: Fixing credit at a young age is a very hard thing to do.
It`s really an injustice in many respects.

I want to get your thoughts on another topic. Louisiana Governor
Bobby Jindal is a big fan of the voucher system. And vouchers rob
taxpayers` money out of the public education system, and funnel it into
exclusive private schools. In a number of private schools in Louisiana,
this state, creationism is part of the curriculum.

Now, a columnist for the local newspaper, "The New Orleans Time-
Picayune", wrote last year vouchers have turned out to be the answer to a
creationist prayer.

Now, meanwhile, the United States ranks tenth in science scores
worldwide falling behind China and Japan. Is this a distorted priority, a
byproduct of what we`re seeing with what schools are getting this taxpayer
money and then driving an ideological agenda? How dangerous is that?

PETERSON: There`s a great danger in the movement to install
creationism into our school system. And I think, when we set aside the
ideological absurdity of that for a moment. The voucher system is a short
cut system that stratifies access to education.

At the end of the day, we need to do the long hard work of
overhauling and actually reforming public education. There`s no short-term
thing. Charter schools even though God bless them, some of them are OK,
the voucher system which works out for some folk, not for the majority of
folk, don`t go to the key issue of what we need to do, which is we need to
value our education system much more broadly and much more directly.

SCHULTZ: And the point here is that lawmakers using vouchers to push
certain ideologies. It`s dangerous territory in education.

REID: We saw this in Florida when Governor Jeb Bush was in office
and tried to push a similar voucher system. It was ruled unconstitutional
because there are two tracks right now on conservative public education.
One of them is that they feel the public school system had taken God out.
They got to find a way to inject religion back in and voucher is the way to
do that.

And the other system is they want to inject profit. They don`t like
the idea that the public school system is a public good. It`s a public
concern that we pay for. They rather it be privatized and they`d rather it
be voucher because then they can inject religion in instead of science and
they can make money. And that`s what charter schools do.

SCHULTZ: Joy Reid, Dr. James Peterson, thanks for being here. You
made it through traffic.

We love hearing from our viewers. So, in our "Ask Ed Live" segment,
the first question comes from (INAUDIBLE). "Why are so in Democrats weak
or cowardly when Republicans are attacking voting rights and health care?"

Cowardly is a really rough word. We have the progress that we have
made since President Obama took office. Health care was a heavy lift. The
stimulus package was a heavy lift. Forty months of job sector growth.
That`s progress.

What are the Republicans going to do? They`re going to try to attack
the power. You attack the power in two ways if you`re a Republican. You
go after voting rights and you try to take down the signature legislation
of President Obama`s legacy, which, of course, is health care for 30
million more Americans.

My struggle on all of this is that why aren`t the Democrats putting
universal health care on the table to be aggressive and go to the next
level? I think the Democrats have also been taken off guard by this
relentless pursuit of suppressing the vote and going after the Voting
Rights Act.

The only thing Democrats can do right now is communicate. Get out in
front of the cameras. Make sure you`re out with the people explaining the
great injustice that this is to Americans and how suppressing workers
rights, suppressing equals rights, the way they`re going after women`s
rights in all of these Republican states and all of these Republican
states, the only way to fight back is through information, heart and desire
-- and the Democrats are going to have to realize the new age and suck it
up and be the leaders on this.

The next question, "Will Sarah Palin really leave the GOP and start a
freedom party?"

Very short answer here: Sarah Palin will do anything to service her
own ego at any particular level.

Stick around. We have a lot more coming up on THE ED SHOW, live from
the Essence Festival in New Orleans.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW. We`re coming to you live from
the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center here in New Orleans, Louisiana.

This was a really big week when it comes to news in the health care
front. It all unfolded on Tuesday.

Tuesday, the White House announced that it would delay the employer
mandate requiring employers who have more than 50 workers to provide health
care benefits. It`s going to go into effect in 2015.

Now, this has stunned really a lot of Democrats in Congress who I`ve
spoken with this week, including me, who would have been -- who really has
been fighting for health care for last four years. There`s a lot of people
in Congress who did a lot of heavy lift to make this thing happened.

Now, Democrats were off-guard by the Obama administration`s
announcement, claiming that this would basically end up confusing a bunch
of consumers across America. In other words like, where are we now? What
does this mean to me?

And, of course, the conservatives have been claiming for a long time
that this mandate is going to kill jobs. But they also say that you can`t
raise taxes on the job creators. So, what if they`ve been right in the
past?

The White House needs to remember one thing, this has been a fight
for almost 100 years to get health care for every American.

Here on THE ED SHOW, this is a topic that I`ve been passionate about
because this affects every kitchen table in America, it affects every
paycheck, it affects everybody`s future. There`s nothing more that we
could cherish I think as an American value to make sure that we give health
care to every American. We seem to have a lot of money for everything
else, why can`t we do health care for all?

Now, Wednesday in this city, 800 people came through the doors here
in the convention center for free health care clinic, they`re part of the
nearly one in four. Think about that one in four people in Louisiana lack
health care insurance. Now, Republicans want these plans (ph) to be really
the model for health care for profit in this country and that`s it. It`s
all about the bottom line.

That is exactly why the White House made I think a huge mistake,
giving conservatives one inch on progress on health care reform in this
country.

I`m joined tonight by Dr. Rani Whitfield, also known as the hip hop
doctor. Also with us, medical director for the National Association for
Free Clinics, Charitable Clinics. That, of course, is the hip doctor.

And also, Dr. Corey Hebert, CEO of BlackHealthTV.com, and an
assistant professor at Tulane University.

I want to focus in on the word "confusion" in a moment. Does this
doctor really confuse a lot of people starting out?

DR. COREY HEBERT, BLACKHEALTHTV.COM: Well, I put it like this: does
it confuse? You have to think about perspective. We think about the delay
of the mandate, right? The employer mandate. Ninety-four percent of all
employers already offer their insurance to their employees. So, we`re not
talking about a lot of people that should be confused, but it`s perspective
because the person that has a hospital, that actually takes care of
uninsured workers, that they`re upset because they have to pay for it.

So, the issue is perspective. Somebody is going to be happy.
Somebody is going to be sad. But as you said at first, we have to make
sure that the people that don`t have a voice get health care at all cost.
We have to be altruistic, we`re doctors. We have to be altruistic.

So, what we need to make sure of that everybody gets health care and
this is ought to happen.

SCHUTLZ: Dr. Hebert, one more point on this. If we have so many
people who have such a great need in this country, why would the Obama
administration do this? Do you think they succumbed to the pressure of
business, saying that we`re going to have all these job layoffs? I mean, I
equate that to you can`t raise taxes on the job creators. I mean, I think
this is another myth.

HEBERT: I mean, I think this is just another myth. I think it was a
real political track move. It had to be a political track move, could be
because of elections. There`s going to be a lot to think.

But the reality is that, with Obamacare coming in, it`s going to be
phased in and there are so many good things that have already implemented.

SCHULTZ: Yes.

HEBERT: I mean, you think about it. People don`t know that the
reason why when you go to McDonald`s and you have all the caloric data on
the menu is because of Affordable Care Act, that`s real.

SCHULTZ: Dr. Whitfield, you see it at these free health care
clinics. Is it getting better?

DR. RANI WHITFIELD, THA HIP HOP DOC: Unfortunately no. With the
Medicaid not being expanded, it`s probably going to get a lot worse. Like
you said, one in four Louisianan does not have insurance, but many of these
are the working poor. We saw 800 people yesterday, 850 volunteers, 65
percent African-Americans, and many of these people came (INAUDIBLE)
hypertension, obesity.

Louisiana has been one of the most unhealthiest states in the last
ten years tied with Mississippi. Cardiovascular deaths, cancer deaths,
obesity and high blood pressure.

So, it`s probably going to get a lot worse if we don`t expand
Medicaid. The other states that have will benefit from this. And we`re
going to be paying more from our states to cover those other states.

SCHULTZ: So, why is Jindal doing that? Why do you think all these
Republican governors are doing that? Is it all about defeating Obama?
When they clearly, you see it at this free health care clinic, the need
comes to the door.

WHITFIELD: Dr. Hebert talked about this earlier. This appears to be
an intense opposition to the Affordable Care Act that happened when the act
became law.

So, it looks like the GOP is upset about this. So, they`re going to
do whatever they can t oppose Obama. While at the same time, between
18,000 and 45,000 people will die each year because of a lack of health
care.

SCHULTZ: I`m confused as to why the Obama administration will take
the number two guy at the Treasury Department 90 days before this is
supposed to be implemented, after such a heavy lift of years of
implementing this and fighting for it and getting it passed, where aren`t
we ready?

HEBERT: You know, I put it like this. There are lot of employers
that even though a lot of them offer insurance they know they`re going to
have to be accountable. They`re going to have to put out alerts. They`re
going to have to make sure that everyone is offered health care or they`re
going to have to pay the penalty.

When you have huge corporations that will have to deal with this,
there are a lot of PACs (ph) out there that are putting so much pressure on
Obama administration and say, delay this thing because we`re not ready.
But you know what? They are ready. They just don`t want it because if
Obama decides it`s going to be pushed through, then they`re going to have
to take it. And that`s a problem for them.

SCHULTZ: How much of a shock was this in the medical community that
this came --

HEBERT: A big shock.

WHITFIELD: Just to postpone it for another year, even though there
were some employers ready to participate, it was a big shock.

So, it was something that has to be done. I`m not sure what the next
step will be.

HEBERT: Think about the hospital setting. If you take care of
indigent or uninsured patients, right now, you have to pay that out of your
pocket to care for them for another year. That`s millions of dollars that
can be used to build a health care clinic that people can actually come to
and get preventive care because when we look at this, there are a lot of
people that are sick right now that haven`t been to the doctor in ten
years. That`s not fair.

And, you know, what we`re trying to do in America is make sure that
everyone has an opportunity, because we need to make sure it`s fair.

SCHULTZ: Do you think that Obamacare focused on enough in preventive
care, to give us better outcomes? The whole mission, as I saw, was to get
more people covered and, overtime, get better outcomes.

HEBERT: Right. And that`s what we need to. I`ve always said we
have more of a disease management system than a health care system. So,
many of the Democrats even though they supported the affordable care law
wanted more from their administration. They were looking for more of a
single payer type system. We weren`t able to get that so we have to get
the best thing that we could at the time.

No, that`s not being done, because more emphasis on preventative
care, pediatricians, family practice need to be reimbursed better so we can
take care of our patients instead of treating them after the disease
processes have occurred.

HEBERT: You got to remember, think about this. The money is not in
the prevention. Intervention is where the money is. So, intervention is
sexy. Prevention is not sexy. Nobody wants to build a state of the art
clinic that prevent diabetes. They want to give you the medicine to fix
diabetes, and that`s the problem.

SCHULTZ: Dr. Whitfield, Dr. Hebert, brothers, I love your passion.
You guys are what doctors are supposed to be.

WHITFIELD: Ed, we used to play ball together. I don`t know if you
know that. We grew up together.

HEBERT: I got a crossover. He`s a little taller than me so I have
to --

SCHULTZ: Today in our survey, I asked you, when it comes to
education policy are Republicans smarter than a third grader? Three
percent said yes, 97 percent of you said no.

You`re watching THE ED SHOW live from the Essence Festival in New
Orleans, Louisiana.

We`re going to be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW live from New Orleans.

Here on THE ED SHOW, we love hearing from our viewers. We`re always
checking our blog and our Facebook page and our Twitter to find out what
stories interest you the most. And every week, we bring you the stories
you`ve made the top trenders of the week.

We`ve got a great crowd here at the Essence Festival in New Orleans.
I want to take a moment before I visit with the folks in the crowd about
how they have been so wonderful to all of us here at MSNBC. They`ve been
so cordial, so enthusiastic.

You know what, they love their country. Just about everybody to a
tee that has come up and talked to me at this festival talks about how
great this country is and what we got to do to make it better. There`s
something pumping down here in the South that`s very progressive and for
the people.

So, when I say "let`s get to work" I think these people know what
we`re talking about and they where we`re at.

(CHEERS)

What`s on your mind as an American?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As an American, I want to make sure we have a
sustainable country for my kids. I say there`s been great work that`s been
done for us as young professionals as we`ve been going forward. Let`s
leave something great for these kids.

Now, I want you to take note about what he said. It wasn`t about
him. It was about his kids, the next generation leaving something behind
for the next generation. What kind of world will we leave our kids?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now, I think women`s health is the
biggest issue and also gun violence. We have to get gun violence under
control right now in America.

SCHULTZ: Very good. I agree.

You`re from Texas. You were telling me what Perry was doing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He haven`t implemented Obamacare. We have so
many kids in Houston and all through Texas that need that Obama care, the
Medicaid expansion. What can we do to get him to help us with that? He
wants to sink Obamacare.

SCHULTZ: What`s your name?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Melody White, Houston, Texas.

SCHULTZ: Houston, Texas.

(CHEERS)

SCHULTZ: I`m still mad because Oiler`s left a long time ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got the Texans. They know how to move. The
rockets are good.

SCHULTZ: A lot happening down there this past week. What do you
think of Wendy Davis?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like her. I love her.

SCHULTZ: Do you think she should run for governor?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anybody should to get him out of there.

SCHULTZ: How big is this that the governor is going after women`s
rights, things that were settled years ago?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s huge.

SCHULTZ: Is it huge?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s huge. We`re so mad about it. They`re
doing it in the dead of night. They`re not doing it out in the open. He`s
trying to one special session after another to wreck the women`s rights.

SCHULTZ: No offense, I didn`t know anything was waterproof down
here. I thought everything was soaked.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. I think the country would be well-
served if Mitch McConnell loses the election campaign next year.

The Republicans have obstructed the administration. They attempted
to hurt many people in America, the disadvantage. And I think that
Americans are beginning to see the Republicans are all about. They want to
hurt people. And Democrats are supporting the poor.

SCHULTZ: How much do you think is they want to see the first black
president fail? How much is this about Obama, President Obama?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you`ve got to remember, Mitch McConnell
said his number one priority was to make sure he was a one time president.
Obviously, that didn`t happen because the American people didn`t do that.
Of course, the Republicans are fighting against everything that the
president does and they will continue to do that.

SCHULTZ: You`re fantastic.

Your thoughts on it? Where are you from?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m from St. Louis, Missouri.

SCHULTZ: Great to have you here. Your name?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Debra Kachin Smith (ph).

SCHULTZ: Debra, what`s on your mind as an American?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Education. We talk a lot about education but
what are we doing. It`s time for us as citizens to rise up and take back
the education policy and the structure in our nation.

SCHULTZ: Fantastic. I want to thank all you have for being here.

That is THE ED SHOW. We`re going to be back tomorrow at a special
time Noon Eastern. We`ll look at the GOP`s attack and what it means for
workers. Have a great day.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY
BE UPDATED.
END

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